US President Donald Trump has shut down the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) Ombudsman, the agency which helped thousands of immigrants deal with complicated visa-related issues.
The decision, experts and lawyers fear, is likely to have a direct bearing on applicants for green cards, international students on F-1 visas, and holders of H-1B visas - many from the Indian diaspora.
The closure will make the CIS less accountable and transparent, according to a report in The Economic Times.
Visa holders frequently turned to the Ombudsman when administrative delays threatened their legal status, Rajiv S. Khanna, an Arlington-based immigration lawyer, told the English daily.
Mr Khanna added that "F-1 and H-1B visa holders turned to the CIS Ombudsman" when they encountered bureaucratic obstacles at USCIS. He noted the move "threatened their legal status and livelihoods."
The Ombudsman's office and USCIS collaborated to organise workshops and offer guidelines on frequent concerns pertaining to work and student visas.
According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the Ombudsman's office processed around 30,000 requests in 2024, providing assistance with application disputes, errors, and delays.
The elimination of the CIS Ombudsman and two other immigration control agencies has sparked worries about the lack of available channels for grievances in a system that is already beset by irregularities and delays.
According to its official website, the CIS Ombudsman is accountable to the DHS Deputy Secretary and is appointed by the DHS Secretary. The CIS Ombudsman aims to assist people and employers with issues that arise when they apply for USCIS immigration benefits.
They further determine the patterns and places where employers and individuals struggle with USCIS and suggest changes to administrative procedures to improve them and reduce issues.
In its 2024 annual report, the CIS Ombudsman said the institution spent much of 2023 to reduce backlogs and corresponding processing times. It reduced processing times and the backlog of cases by 15 per cent, despite other priorities impacting its ability to achieve its mission.
